No. 8 Ramapo Knocks Off No. 6 Vassar

MAHWAH, N.J. - The Ramapo College men's volleyball team, ranked #8 in the nation, defeated the #5 ranked Vassar College today at the Bradley Center in Mahwah. With the win, (28-30, 30-23, 30-24, 30-20), the Roadrunners remain undefeated in the NECVA Metro Conference at 7-0 while improving to 18-2 overall. Vassar falls to 13-4 overall, 4-2 in the conference.

The Roadrunners dropped the first game of a best-out-of-five match-up after handing Vassar eight points from service errors. Ramapo hit .412 ahead of Vassar's .353 but fell short by a close two points, 30-28. Senior Shane Donohue (Freehold, NJ) led Ramapo with seven of the team's 17 kills and fellow senior Jairo Sierra (Fair Lawn, NJ) dished out 14 assists. Defensive specialist Kurt Backlund (Old Bridge, NJ) led the defense with five digs. John Kessenich (Chicago, IL) led Vassar with six kills and Phil Tully (Huntington Station, NY) added four in the win. The team combined for 16 kills. Clifford Quinn (Hamburg, NY) contributed 13 assists and Tully led the defense with five digs.

Ramapo walked away with game two, 30-23, after hitting .500 with 14 kills on 24 attempts and only two errors. Vassar went 17-29 with seven errors (.345) in the game. Donohue again led the Roadrunners, this time with five kills, while TC Elsasser (Barnegat, NJ) chipped in four kills of his own. Tom Kohler (East Brunswick, NJ) added three kills and two service aces while Sierra contributed ten assists. Kessenich and Tully each recorded six kills for Vassar while Quinn dished out 13 assists.

Ramapo went up 2-1 with a game three, 30-24 win. The Roadrunners put away 16 kills on 23 attempts with four errors hitting .522, while Vassar combined hitting .231 going 14-26 with eight errors. Donohue added five kills in the win while Kohler and Jeff Elsasser (Barnegat, NJ) each added three. Sierra added 13 assists to the win. Evan Fredericksen (Menlo Park, CA) recorded a team leading four kills and Tully added three. Kessenich dished out ten assists.

In the final game of the match, the Roadrunners came out on top, 30-20, hitting .517 ahead of Vassar's .250. Ramapo combined for 17 kills on 29 attempts with only two hitting errors and Donohue again led the way with seven kills. Kohler and J. Elsasser chipped in four kills each and Sierra contributed 11 assists. Tully recorded four of his team's 13 kills while Kessenich dished out nine assists.

On the day, Ramapo hit .482 with 64 kills on 110 attempts with only 11 hitting errors. Donohue led the way with 24 kills and Kohler added 13. Both Elsasser boys chipped in ten kills while Sierra finished the day with 48 assists. Backlund led the way with eight digs. Tully was Vassar's leading attack man with 17 kills while Kessenich chipped in 16. Quinn and Kessenich recorded 29 and 23 assists respectively.

Ramapo returns to action on Wednesday, March 4th when they face off with NECVA Metro rival Stevens, at 7:00 PM at the Bradley Center.